Abortion/Breast Cancer Talk in Rochester

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Abortion/Breast Cancer Presentation in Rochester, NY

A most unusual presentation occurred April 28, 2004 in Rochester, NY.  Brought to town by Feminists for Life of New York with the help of a grant from the Leo Holmsten Human Life Award Committee, Joel Brind and Angela Lanfranchi presented data that strongly suggests a link between induced abortion and breast cancer.

Who are they and what would they know about it?

Dr. Lanfranchi has a private practice in which she exclusively does breast surgery.  She is also a Clinical Assistant Professor of Surgery at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, a fellow of the American College of Surgeons, a diplomate of the American Board of Surgery and a member of the Expert Advisory Panel for the New Jersey Board of Medical Examiners.  Dr. Brind, a Professor of Human Biology and Endocrinology at Baruch College of New York city, is a graduate of Yale with a Ph.D. awarded by New York University in 1981.  He is a biochemist specializing in reproductive steroid hormones, e.g. estrogen, and their links to human disease. He has an international reputation as a breast cancer researcher and is widely published in medical journals. 

Who were they talking to?

Drs. Brind and Lanfranchi offered an excellent presentation, giving the kind of information that would let people know what their relative risks were, based on their own health histories.

One professor at a local college brought students from her nursing class.  Other attendees included people with interests in many women�s issues including natural family planning; there was a representative from the Breast Cancer Coalition here in Rochester and a columnist from the Democrat & Chronicle.  In addition, there were medical health professionals and many community people. 

Most of the attendees found the presentation useful, since the information is not normally even referred to in local publications.

What did they say?

Dr. Lanfranchi pointed to her interest in the field as being developed when she realized that many of her patients were much younger than the textbooks said they should be.  It bothered her to be performing radical surgery on women who still had young children, women who, if were going to get breast cancer, should have been getting it at a much later age.  As a result she began asking questions of her patients regarding their health histories, looking for some reason.  A frequent common thread that she found was a history of breast cancer, frequently at a young age, frequently in a first pregnancy, frequently with a family history of breast cancer.  She became convinced that this was an area that needed research, because if the connection she was seeing was really true, then women who were at risk needed to know it so they could take the steps likely to protect their health and their lives.

She gave a thorough explanation of the statistical terms used to describe risk in the published studies to serve as a basis for later understanding. She then described the changes that occur in breast tissue in a normal pregnancy and showed in what way these are apt to be affected by an induced abortion.

Dr. Joel Brind is a researcher.  With the help of a statistical expert, he embarked on the task of analyzing the studies that had already been done on breast cancer and abortion.  Although the correlation between breast cancer and abortion was noted in many a study, the point was usually not made in the summary of the study, so the correlation was frequently lost.

He worked his way through many published studies, showing why some of the ones that showed no link might have failed to show it.  For instance, putting miscarriages and induced abortions together might mask the effect because although researchers have defined a link between breast cancer and induced abortions there has been no such link found with miscarriages, for reasons that are explainable in the biological process described by Dr. Lanfranchi.

In a recent communication he had noted that there was a correlation noted in 29 out of 41 published studies.  In any other area, such an indication of possible risk would be treated very seriously.  The public would insist on publicity so that potential victims could protect themselves.  However, he noted, when the topic is abortion, there is a curious reluctance to even broach the issue.

Feedback

The audience had been asked to hold questions until the completion of the presentation.  Clearly the presentation had caught people�s interest because at question and answer time, the first questioner was at one of the microphones almost before the announcement was finished.  Other questions followed immediately.  At the end of the question time, there was a man who had gone to a microphone, but yielded to a woman at the other microphone.  He did not get to pose his question because the gathering was adjourned for refreshments.  Hopefully, he got to pose his question then!

The questions were varied enormously, ranging from how to spread the word among health professionals to what a woman at risk might do to protect herself.  The audience found all the answers informative, although, for some, the technical level had been a bit high.

Publicity??

The question of how to spread the word is a major problem.  Many health professionals dismiss the issue completely.  Dr. Lanfranchi said that she had been surprised that some other doctors said they agreed with her but did not wish to say so publicly because the issue was �too political.�

After examining some of the many websites on the topic of breast cancer, one is struck that most of them either do not mention abortion (i.e. a search comes up empty) or say that there is no connection between abortion and breast cancer.  They may refer to the �controversy� on the issue, but they do not have a link to any of the sites on the other side of the controversy so that women can more easily inform themselves.

The abortion/breast cancer link has become identified with the pro-life debate, and the assumption is usually made that only pro-lifers believe in the link.  The D&C published an article in advance of the talk to let readers know about it.  However, well over half of the article contained rebuttals for the quotes for Lanfranchi and Brind, most unusual in an article referring to an upcoming talk.

There was no news coverage of the talk afterwards, but the columnist who attended wrote scathingly in her regular column of the �scare tactics� she saw, maintaining stoutly that abortion does not cause breast cancer and accusing the presenters of not allowing one of the �non-link� proponents to ask her question.  That questioner had started by suggesting that Brind not study the abortion link because it wasn�t true, that he instead look at environmental issues.  He answered her question and then invited her back to the microphone to respond to a question of his.  So rather than being shut out, this questioner had two opportunities at the microphone.

Clearly it is difficult to find a venue in which researchers like Brind and Lanfranchi can explain themselves fully.  And the people who pay the price are the women who don�t get to hear the information that would allow them to make their own decisions.

The changing wind

Dr. Janet Daling is one of the researchers who has authored studies on the relationship between abortion and breast cancer.  She identifies herself as pro-choice and has been quoted as saying, �If politics gets involved in science, it will really hold back the progress we make. I have three sisters with breast cancer, and I resent people messing with the scientific data to further their own agenda, be they pro-choice or pro-life. I would have loved to have found no association between breast cancer and abortion, but our research is rock solid, and our data is accurate. It's not a matter of believing. It's a matter of what is.� (www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/02/16/1045330466585.html )

The experts in medicine once rejected the notion that germs cause infection.  Now no doctor would dream of doing surgery without washing his hands.  Once the experts said there was no connection between cigarette smoking and lung cancer.  Now multiple financial settlements have been made to cigarette smokers because the connection is inescapable.

A financial settlement has been made to a woman who had an abortion because the doctor did not tell her the connection between abortion and breast cancer.  One would expect that there will be more.

One wonders how many lives could be saved if there were really factual discussions on the connection between abortion and breast cancer instead of emotional defenses of abortion.

One wonders if one of the health risks for breast cancer is silence.


Videos will be available from Feminists for Life. If you are interested in ordering the videotape (DVD or VHS are $25.00 each) from the April 28, 2004 event at the Rochester Academy of Medicine, please contact:
Dick Demeco
 Larita Productions
 129 Knapp Avenue, Rochester 14609
 phone 654-5420

Brind and Lanfranchi have formed the Breast Cancer Prevention Institute, with a website www.BCPInstitute.org
They have a very effective new video out.

For other information check out the Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer at www.abortionbreastcancer.com


Reporting by RARTL,  updated on RARTL May 2004


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